This raised the possibility that their other flagship project would be on the block -- and sure enough, today they announced that Imperial Valley would be acquired by AES Solar, another PV developer with deep pockets (thanks to parents AES Corp and Riverstone Holdings).

We should mention that the overall state of the U.S. utility-scale solar market remains healthy. It is true that some of the CSP projects are being canceled or changed to PV, but there are also several CSP mega-projects that have secured financing and are now beginning construction (i.e., BrightSource's 392 MW Ivanpah, and Abengoa's 280 MW Solana). And numerous utility-scale PV projects are also moving forward, too. As covered in GTM Research's US Utility PV report, there are over 6 GW of contracted utility PV projects in the pipeline, and many new developers are entering this promising market - with AES Solar (the purchaser of Imperial Valley) being one example. The GTM Research U.S. Utility PV Project Developer Taxonomy has more.

It sounds like a sad ending to the Tessera / Stirling Energy story. But who knows? Perhaps this phoenix will rise from the ashes, as the dish technology still holds a lot of promise, and other companies (e.g., Infinia) are working hard to bring dish-engine systems to market.